One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’

Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.’

“The servant returned and told his master what they had said.

His master was furious and said,

‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town

And invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’

So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges

And urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.

For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”

In part seven of our twelve-part devotion series entitled, "Be Prepared!" we look at preparation, that was ignored, through the eyes of Luke and the words of Jesus. It is sad to say that many Christians ignore all the preparation that is done for them by God and Jesus. Not only did Jesus tell us He was going to prepare a place for us in heaven, everywhere we look in the Bible God is always making preparations for us to do His work. In our Scripture lesson today, Jesus shares a parable about a master that prepares a huge banquet and sends out many invitations. All of us would probably have loved to get one of these special invitations. The chances are good that we would get together with others and discuss who had been invited and who had been left out. I suspect we would all exclaim our excitement about such an event being planned. Then there becomes the reality of actually going to the event. Now the excuses begin because, for most of us, attending would just be too "inconvenient." The Jewish people were no different than the world that we live in today. One had purchased property and wanted to inspect it. Another had obtained new animals that they wanted to "try out." The final person exclaimed that he couldn't come because he was married! Let's learn a very important lesson from this Scripture. These people were given but one invitation to the banquet. They declined by making excuses as to why they could not attend. All the excuses were lame, in the eyes of the master, so new people were invited who accepted. When there were still seats available to the banquet, the master did not re-invite the people who chose not to attend. The master's instruction was to go, where others would not go, and present the banquet invitation to those who had not yet been invited. Often, we Christians make life with Jesus much more complicated than it should be. God has done all the preparation. All we have to do is attend and tell others to do the same. The Scripture is clear. If we choose not to accept the invitation, we run the risk of never being able to attend the "banquet." The message is so obvious that many of us miss it. "No More Excuses!"